Lovegood Meets Zabini
by Lady Whight
Summary: Vignettes. Blaise Zabini is a Slytherin like any other: Snide and sarcastic. But what if the person he talks to is just oblivious? Luna aka Loony Lovegood is oblivious and Blaise rises to the challenge. More to come.
1. First Encounter

I looked up Blaise Zabini's name and found out that it is not clear if Blaise is male or female. I always fancied Blaise was a boy, so I'll keep HIM like that. *grins* Here are a few ultrashort vignettes featuring Blaise and the greatest of all Loonies: Luna Lovegood!  
  
.  
  
First Encounter  
  
Luna hummed a little tune, walking leisurely along one of the narrower corridors of Hogwarts. It was an out of the way corridor, which was seldom used, and Luna liked it. Absentmindedly, she swung her arms in time with her little tune, oblivious of the strange look the only other student in the corridor sent her.  
  
The student tried to get out of Luna's the way, who was looking straight at him, but did not seem to see him nonetheless, but the corridor was not wide enough. Seeing this, the student frowned and resolutely stepped forward, so he came to stand in front of Luna.  
  
'HEY!' He shouted, just early enough that the arms stopped swinging inches away from his body. 'Stop flailing around with your arms, Loony, no need to make self-defence moves, nobody'd want to assault YOU.'  
  
Luna was unfazed by the cutting remark and just stared at him blankly. 'You're Blaise, aren't you?'  
  
The boy frowned. 'No, I'm the bloody Dark Lord himself! Now bugger off!' He snapped irritably.  
  
'No, you're not.' Luna replied. 'The Dark Lord can't get into Hogwarts.'  
  
Blaise sighed. 'You don't even know what sarcasm is, do you? And you're in Ravenclaw!'  
  
'Oh yes, I know what sarcasm is,' Luna informed him brightly. 'It's to say something but meaning something else altogether.'  
  
'Brilliant!' Blaise mocked. 'Five points for you, Loony!'  
  
'So, if you aren't Blaise, who are you?' Luna persisted, ignoring the unpleasant nickname he gave her.  
  
He rolled his eyes. 'I AM Blaise.'  
  
'Well, that's what I thought. Why didn't you just say yes?' She said, thoroughly perplexed.  
  
Exasperated, Blaise refrained from trying to explain that he had actually been sarcastic, and only said in a deceptively quiet voice: 'It slipped my mind, now.'  
  
'Oh yes, I can understand that!' Luna interrupted him, 'I forget things like that all the time.'  
  
Now it was Blaise's turn to interrupt. 'Never mind, Loony. Just get on with you, will you?' He said impatiently.  
  
'I would,' Luna answered obligingly, 'If you'd let me. You're standing in my way, you know?'  
  
Seeing that she was right, Blaise hurriedly stepped to the side. Luna gave him an absent smile, and then walked off, humming. She smiled to herself. It had been an interesting little conversation, although she didn't like that the boy had called her Loony all the time. She didn't blame him, however, maybe he hadn't known what her real name was, after all, he hadn't known what sarcasm was, either. She'd tell him to call her Luna the next time she saw him.  
  
Blaise, on the other hand, stomped off in the opposite direction with the unpleasant feeling of failure. His quips had been sleek, his sarcasm witty, but whatever sting his words might have had just hadn't reached Loony Lovegood. He frowned, remembering that he hadn't even had the last word. Blast the girl! Why'd she have to be so oblivious!? 


	2. They Meet Again

They Meet Again  
  
Luna always went to eat breakfast early, so she was finished eating as soon as the owls came and could fully concentrate on reading the Quibbler. Sometimes she saw an article that interested her so much that she went on reading it on her way to the classroom. This time a text on 'Banshee Billiard: Panicking Pockets And Quailing Queues' caught her attention, and so she walked out of the Great Hall, her eyes glued to the words.  
  
Suddenly, something solid got in her way, knocking her hands holding the Quibbler towards her, till the magazine was plastered against her face.  
  
'Look where you're going, Loony!' A voice exclaimed from beyond the Quibbler.  
  
Luna looked over the rim of the Quibbler in front of her and right into two blazing grey eyes. 'Oh, good morning, Blaise.' She said pleasantly.  
  
'Don't 'good morning' me!' He hissed, taking a step away from her. 'And don't ever dare to cross my path again.'  
  
'Oh I won't' Luna said cheerfully, turning back to the interesting article in her father's magazine already. 'I haven't crossed it yet, have I? But I really don't mind if you go on crossing mine, I'm quite a tolerant person.' A choking sound made her look at Blaise curiously. 'Are you alright?'  
  
Blaise eyed her with a dumbfounded look. 'What.-what did you just say?'  
  
'Are you alright?'  
  
'No. Before that.'  
  
'I said I really don't mind if you go on crossing my path, I'm quite a tolerant person.' She said pleasantly. 'And I think you didn't realise that my name is Luna, not Loony. I know the two words are very similar, but I'm sure you'll manage to pronounce my name correctly, now I've told you.'  
  
Blaise pulled himself together. It would not do to let the girl get at him. Shrugging, he turned away from her. 'You're a waste of time, Loony.' With that, he walked off, leaving a troubled Luna behind.  
  
The boy was obviously a bit out of things. Why else should he react so strangely? 


	3. Encounter Nr 3

Encounter Nr. 3  
  
It had been a rather eventless week. Luna sat in her classes and quietly absorbed those parts of the teachers' lectures that she thought were important. She nearly never took notes, but stared absentmindedly at the teacher or at the student in front of her and listened. Those around her suspected that she didn't pay any attention to classes at all, though that was an idiotic thing to think. How could Luna get her high grades, if not through paying attention?  
  
The one class in which she always took notes was Potions. Not because it was especially difficult, but she had soon decided that a class with Snape was more pleasant when she scribbled into her notebook. Not that he would have been able to make head or tail of her notes had he taken a look at them. No one but Luna herself knew what clues the words she carefully printed into her book gave.  
  
There was, for instance, her entry concerning Pollyjuice Potion:  
  
_i.4: Very thinly, i.5: Slowly, i.11: Don't forget._   
  
And that was that.  
  
No need to say that the inquisitive Slytherin, who unknowingly sat at the same desk during _his_ Potions class and who found the notebook after she'd forgotten it on her desk after her Potions lesson, felt rather puzzled when he poked a look into it. When he saw whose notebook it was, he groaned. Two encounters with the crackpot were enough, yet now her notebook had had to fall into his hands!  
  
After the lesson was over, Blaise approached Snape to give him Loony's notes, but the Potions Master didn't make the slightest move to relieve him of the burden. Instead, he told Blaise to bring the notes to 'Ms. Lovegood'. Sighing inwardly, Blaise left the classroom. No matter how much he'd liked to argue, he knew quite well that arguing with Snape would not get him anywhere.  
  
On his way to the Great Hall, he resolved to make Loony pay for the errand he had been forced to run for her. He, Blaise Zabini, had to run after a student two years younger and as crazy as the rest of the school put together to bring her her notes she'd made so cryptic they could be no use and had which she'd dared to forget!  
  
Fuming, he strode over to the Ravenclaw table, where she sat at the seat that was farthest from the teachers' table. Her wand sticking behind her ear, the Quibbler lying open in front of her, she ate and read at the same time. She did not notice him till he smacked the notebook right onto the Quibbler. Then she raised her dreamy eyes to his flashing ones and smiled.  
  
'Hello Blaise! So it was you who had my notebook.' She said pleasantly. 'How nice of you to return it before the end of term!'  
  
Puzzled, he met her innocent stare. 'What else should I be doing, Loony? Why the hell should I want to keep any book of _yours_ any longer than necessary? You idiot forgot the notes in the Potions classroom and Snape made me return it to you.'  
  
'Everyone else waits to return my things to me till the end of term.' Luna explained, while stuffing the notebook into her patched bag. 'This is a pleasant change.'  
  
'Don't get used to it, Loony', Blaise sneered. 'I won't be bringing you any more books back if I can help it.'  
  
'Don't worry', Luna answered brightly, 'I can handle it.' Her expression turned to that of slight interest. 'By the way, are you managing your little problem with your split personality?'  
  
'The only one with a split personality here is you. In fact, you're absolutely cracked!'  
  
'Ah, so you no longer live under the illusion that you're the Dark Lord? That is good!'  
  
Blaise wasn't as surprised as he had been on earlier occasions when she blithely ignored his insults and doggedly pursued the subject she wanted to talk about. And it was time to change tactics, anyway. 'Yes, I discovered that I am not the Dark Lord, I am greater than him. How else could Evil Me have managed to enter Hogwarts in spite of all the wards?'  
  
Ha! He got the satisfaction of seeing a look of utter perplexity cross Luna's features. His feeling of triumph was somewhat dampened, however, when she said: 'If you are evil, why did you return my notes to me?'  
  
He flashed her a devious smile. 'It's all part of my sinister plan, Loony.'  
  
He went, leaving behind an utterly bewildered Luna. What was he up to?  
  
.  
  
.  
  
Luna has already memorised the ingredients and in which sequence she has to add them. She only notes the things she might forget to do when making the potion later on. For Pollyjuice Potion, she noted that she has to slice ingredient 4 very thinly, add ingredient 5 very slowly and not forget to add the 11th ingredient (because she nearly DID forget to add it during Double Potions). 


	4. Four Times Lucky?

Four Times Lucky?

Luna was slightly worried. Since when was there another Dark Lord? And if Blaise had a plan, how did bringing back her potions notebook fit into this plan? Blaise must have a very unstable personality. Or he might be under the Imperius curse. She mulled that thought over in her mind and dismissed it. It was much more likely that he still had a split personality, only that he now didn't think of himself as THE Dark Lord anymore. He now thought he was another Dark Lord. She couldn't yet decide if that change was good or bad.

She began watching him to see how often he changed his personality. It seldom happened. She saw him shove an annoying first year out of his way, snapping at Goyle, glaring at a bunch of giggling second years and kicking the wall in frustration because he had to wait for a staircase. All rather mild symptoms, but one never knew. She remembered how bad things had happened to some of Dad's informants although there had been no sign of trouble beforehand.

She took great care that he wouldn't notice her, and so was startled when he spoke to her one afternoon, as she passed him in a corridor.

‚Hey, Loony! What are you watching me all the time for? Set your sights on someone else, will you?'

Well, she couldn't really do that, could she? ‚That is quite impossible, Blaise, I'm sorry. But how could I find out about your sinister plan without watching you?'

Blaise hadn't expected that. He'd thought that even Loony would suspect that he had pulled her leg after thinking their previous conversation over. Obviously she hadn't. He grinned. This might be fun.

‚Well, Loony, such plans as I have can be quite unhealthy for nosy loons like you. How would you like to be hexed just because you stick your nose into things that don't concern you?' he hissed.

Loony Lovegood seemed not at all flustered. ‚That would be very unpleasant. And that's why I never do stick my nose into things that don't concern me.'

Once again, Blaise in vain searched for any logic in Luna's words. ‚Then why do you nose around in my affairs?' He asked, exasperatedly.

‚I'm rather concerned about your health', Luna told him earnestly. ‚Being a Dark Lord and a student at Hogwarts at the same time will tax you. In fact, you'd best leave your Dark Lord personality on the side till you've graduated and have enough time for it.'

Blaise seethed. The „I am greater than the Dark Lord"- plan wasn't working. Yet. With a flourish, he took out his wand. ‚If you won't leave me to my plans, I will he-'

Before he could finish, Luna had plucked his wand from his fingers and was examining it. ‚Father says that willow wands combined with Quigglysnap hair can spontaneously combust. Does your wand have a Quigglysnap core?'

‚No. Now give me back my wand so I can hex you to the ground of the lake.'

‚You really should concentrate on being more polite, you know', Luna told him pleasantly, handing him back his wand. ‚You do know the word „please", don't you?'

With that she walked off, looking back only once to ask: ‚If your sinister plan works, would you give the Quibbler an exclusive interview?'

‚If my sinister plan works, there will be no Quibbler anymore.' Blaise told her pleasantly. He saw her freeze on the spot with shock before he turned and walked off.

Luna didn't move for quite some time. Her mind was reeling.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter the Fifth

Blaise' threat to the Quibbler bothered Luna more than anything, for although she was sure that he wasn't really mean, and that it was his Mr. Hyde personality that was dangerous, not his usual self, that didn't mean that her father was safe. It was quite impossible to say how long an evil fit could last, it might take hold of Blaise long enough to put her dad into trouble. So Luna decided to watch Blaise night and day, and if he showed signs of evil, she would alert Dumbledore and her father at once.

No point in disclosing poor Blaise' secret yet, she didn't want to make life harder for him than it undoubtedly was already. Just imagine! Two personalities in one body! Double the emotion for the same amount of hormones..!

Meanwhile, Blaise was starting to regret what he'd said. He had the unpleasant feeling that he'd just made life much more difficult for himself. What troubled him most, was that he noticed how he seemed to be able to predict what Loony would do next by now, as if he actually was beginning to understand how her mind worked. It was as good an indication that she was driving him crazy as any!

As he had feared, his prediction came true. Had Loony followed him around surreptitiously before, she now turned into his second shadow. Other Slytherins began to notice, and gave him hell for it. They jeered at her as well. Which was a good thing. Really. But the problem was, that Blaise wasn't actually a jerk, and some of the things Loony had to put up with from his housemates simply because she thought her dad was in danger made him feel sorry for her.

With that in mind, he found a way of extracting himself from everyone and found an empty corridor, where he turned to face his shadow number two, a.k.a. Luna Lovegood.

'I don't really want to do anything to your dad, you know', he told her, letting his exasperation over the whole situation seep into his tone, 'so back off and get a life, Loony!'

'Are you starting on your sinister plan now?' Luna asked, 'because if you are, I will have to be even more careful.'

'NO!', Blaise took a deep breath, 'no, why do you think I'd start my sinister plan by telling you I wouldn't hurt your dad?'

'Well, you could be trying to convince me to lower my guard before you actually moved in on my father', Luna explained earnestly, 'can you give me a reason why you wouldn't be planning anything like that right now?'

Blaise had to think fast, and, suddenly, he had an idea, 'you know, I though about it. I will need all the publicity I can get, once I start my career as Evil Lord, and an interview with the Quibbler would be one step in the right direction. Don't you think?'

Luna did think. She brightened considerably. 'You are absolutely right!' Secretly, she thought how good it would be, if she might have an early warning before Evil Blaise put his plan into action and notify Dumbledore if the need arose. 'I will send an owl to my dad at once to tell him that he must be ready to interview you as soon as you think it's time!'

'Are you still going to follow me?', Blaise couldn't help himself asking.

Luna smiled, 'of course not! I know you will keep your word. You always do.'

'Do I?'

'Trust me. I've watched you a while now. If it weren't for the Evil you, you'd be a wonderful person!', Luna reassured him, smiling all over her face.

'Oh thanks', Blaise said, totally forgetting how little sarcasm worked when dealing with Luna.

'My pleasure! I knew you'd like to know', Luna replied cheerfully, and then she left.

Blaise didn't bother to reply and walked in the other direction. Followed by just one shadow.


End file.
